Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture

The early history of Bangladesh falls within the chronology of India, where until 1947 it is
effectively the easternmost province, known as East Bengal. Upon the partition of India and
Pakistan in that year, Islamic East Bengal becomes the eastern wing of Pakistan. (The East
Pakistan period [1947–1971] is dealt with in the chapter on Pakistan, and includes the years of
struggle for independence.)

East Pakistan achieves independence as Bangladesh (Land of the Bengalis) only after a civil
war and the intervention of India in 1971. The country's first prime minister, Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, almost immediately imposes martial law, and the political history of Bangladesh is an
unhappy narrative of dictatorship punctuated by coups, assassinations, and brief experiments in
constitutional democracy. Underneath it all lies a country constantly struggling with the relentless pressures of its natural environment, its population, and its poverty.

December 1970: Elections are held throughout Pakistan to choose an assembly that will
write a new constitution. The Awami
League, the party based in East Pakistan and
led by Sheik Mujibar Rahman, wins a majority and calls for self-government of East
Pakistan.

March 1, 1971: Determined not to let the
Awami League have its way, Pakistan's president Yahya Khan postpones the first meeting of the newly elected assembly. Demonstrations begin to unsettle East Pakistan.

March 25, 1971: Yahya Khan declares an
emergency in East Pakistan, bans the Awami
League, and arrests Rahman. Pakistan's
army attacks demonstrating Bengali separatists in East Pakistan. Civil war breaks out.

March 26, 1971: A group of Bangladeshi nationalists make a covert radio broadcast in
East Pakistan calling for independence from
Pakistan. This event will be observed as
Bangladesh's Independence Day.

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